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From Beijing to Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Taipei, fast-paced modern life means tea has little appeal for Asian youth who don't have the patience to wait the 10 minutes it takes to brew tea in the traditional way.
"I don't have any time or relevant tea culture," said Becca Liu, 25, a college graduate in Taipei.
"I'm more curious to know how to make coffee."
Determined to restore tea to its exalted status in Asia, tea lovers are trying to repackage the leaves as a funky new-age brew to a young generation more inclined to slurp down a can of artificially-flavoured tea than to sip the real thing.
Taiwan tea expert Yang Hai-chuan sells sachets of mixed oolong and green tea leaves at teahouses across Taipei, marketing them as hip flavoured beverages.
"Consumption of traditional tea is declining because it's not being passed down," said Yang, who teaches tea brewing classes to a handful of students such as Liu, who sign up mostly because of the coffee-making section in the course.
Yang's concoction is just one around North Asia that's sustaining tea, despite pressure from coffee and other beverages, by catering to younger people's fixations on their health and a thirst for novelty.
In Japan, a new tea line is winning fans among young Japanese with its claims to reduce body fat, while a South Korean brand called "17 Tea" is popular for its claims to blend teas that cure a host of ills.
According to a Chinese myth, tea was discovered about 5000 years ago by Shennong, a legendary emperor of China who was sipping a bowl of hot water when a gust of wind blew some tea tree twigs into the water.
The rest as they say is history.
It became a pillar of cultural and culinary life in Asia, spreading to Europe in the 17th century.
The elaborate tea-making ceremonies of past centuries are largely defunct across North Asia, although traditional drinkers avoid Western tea bags and devoutly adhere to tea-making customs by pouring hot water from clay pots over tea leaves.
Teahouses across the region, from airport waiting halls in China to parks and temples in Taiwan, continue the tradition but mostly to the older generation who are willing to pay US$1 ($1.29) per gram for prime tea leaves.
Younger drinkers prefer canned tea, powdered tea, soft drinks and coffee.
"Our children don't want to carry on the traditions, so in the future it will be forgotten," said Wang Cheng-long, a life-long bulk leaf seller. Minoru Takano, director of the Japanese Association of Tea Production, admits that canned flavoured teas have helped keep consumption up.
"We are trying to promote making tea by the pot. Some households do not [even] have a pot. We are concerned that the tradition and culture may disappear," Takano said.
- Reuters
